Cornbread - From the Garden to the Table

    This past year we tried something new and that was growing corn that can be dried and then made into cornmeal. We specifically grew Indian corn- the beautiful colorful stuff. It was a venture that went quite well and one I plan to try again and I thought I would encourage others to do the same.

  The reason we did this originally is simply because we think they are pretty and we like to try new things. We thought it would be fun to have a lot of Indian corn on hand to decorate with.

  After growing it I have come up with more reasons that I like to grow it:

1. It tastes good.

2. My kids love husking it and working with it.

3. It doesn't have GMO's and the more I learn about them and realize that there are GMO's in most corn that we would buy the stronger I feel about this one! Now it is important that you get non-GMO seed. I bought our from Fedco and there are many other good places as well to get non-GMO seed. If you buy organic seed it will be and then there are other seeds that might not be organic but are non-GMO.

 

 The picture above shows the corn growing in our rather weedy garden (I really hope to do better at keeping things weed free next year - but am thankful that much grows despite that problem!). The stalks on the Indian corn were pretty too.

 This is one of the ways we used them for decoration.

The kids loved taking the kernels off the cob after they had dried.

They would sit around and do that when I read in the afternoons.

I am not sure what would be a good way to do this is you don't have eager children to help.

Ground up into meal the Indian corn has a different coloring than normal cornmeal but it works the same.

Here is my recipe for cornbread:



1 cup cornmeal

1 cup flour

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup honey

3 teaspoons baking powder

2/3 cup milk

1 egg

1/3 cup oil

Mix dry ingredients together. Then gently stir in wet ingredients. Don't stir to much, some lumps are okay. Put in greased 8x8 pan. Bake at 400 degrees for around 20 minutes, check with toothpick to see when done. We like this so much that I usually double the recipe and then bake it in a 9 x 13" pan.

 We have also used our colorful cornmeal to make other things as well (in tortillas, etc) and it works just fine.

Have any of the rest of you grown your own corn to grind? I would love to hear about your experiences. Also please feel free to ask any questions that you might have. I love hearing from you!

I am linking this up to the Barn Hop hosting by New Life on a Homestead and The Prairie Homestead.

I am also linking to Clever Chick's Blog Hop.

Pictures from our recent snowstorm and some thoughts from the Sermon on the Mount

A view of our house from up in a tree.

 We are in the midst of another snowstorm and Mara went out for a walk with the camera so I thought I would share some pictures of the beauty that she found. We all were out in the storm for a while as we had a big brush pile fire at the church building tonight to help clean up the grounds before a wedding there next month. It was the stormiest weather that I have ever stood around a fire in but it was fun.

   Lately the kids and I have been working to memorize Matthew chapter 5. Eventually we want to memorize the whole sermon on the mount but so far are only working on the 5th chapter. This sermon is truly jam packed with teachings of Jesus and there is tons of things to learn and put to practice in it!

   Much of it I find encourages me in ways I was already going but there is one teaching that I admit I have found to be a challenge to me and the way I naturally think. It is found in Matthew 5:42. It says:


    "Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you."

 Now I don't have an issue with helping others and giving gifts. In fact I find gift giving to be very fun most of the time. If I see somebody that I truly in need and I am able to give something to help them that it even more fun. I admit I probably like to do it best when I can do it out of my own initiative rather than being asked but if there is truly a need then I don't mind being asked either. I also don't mine loaning things, if someone needs something I something I own can help them out, or if they might enjoy reading a book, listening to a CD (or whatever) that I have I am glad to loan something.

  But I think where my feelings of being challenged come from is the fact that this verse is put together with verses that say thinks like "If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn the other to him also" or if someone forces you to go with him one mile, go with him two" and so I realized that this verse on giving and loaning is not just talking about the times that I would like to give, when I know the person could use it and when I know that I have it available to give, no I think it is talking about times that I think things like "You should have used the money you had to take care of your own needs rather than wasting it and then expecting me to take care of you". I think in those times Jesus is reminding me to give rather than to pass judgment.

  It isn't like I am face with this sort of situation very often - I'm not. In fact in the times in recent years have been pretty rare. But it brings back memories to me of my college days when I owned a car (and then when Ken and I got married we were a two car household- and Ken was much better and willingly loaning than I) and many of our college friends did not have cars. I did a lot of walking in those days as I lived fairly close to both the college and my work and so my car sat idle much of the time. That caused a fairly frequent request from others to borrow my car. I did loan it at times and at times I didn't mind doing it at all as I could see a need but there were other times that I didn't feel quite so gracious nor did I always loan to the one who asked of me. 

  I think that the verse from 2 Thessalonians 3:10 "For even when we were with you we gave you this order; if anyone is not willing to work, then he is not to eat, either." should probably come in to play as well and then perhaps the idea that if one isn't willing to work and be careful with their money so that they can provide for their own needs we aren't always to bail them out - but I think we need to find a balance between these two thoughts. And I think for me my heart was needing the challenge to make sure that I am will to give and loan, without passing judgment on others and do it cheerfully too!

  I found it interesting that while I was pondering the verse from Matthew 5 that I happened to read Proverbs chapter 3 and in verses 27 and 28 which say: "Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to do it. Do not say to your neighbor, "Go, and come back, and tomorrow I will give it," When you have it with you." Now I think these verses are talking about wages that are due to someone or something like that and I totally agree with and strive to practice that concept but the similarity of the message of those verses just made the point hit home a little harder with me.

   I would love to hear your thoughts on these verses!

Good service

 We had a restaurant at our house today. Megan was doing some cleaning up in the kitchen and thought it would be fun to run a fast food restaurant too. She made a menu and had a bell that people could ring for service. Originally she served Water, Pumpkin Bread, "Coke" (water from the water filter with a bit of honey in it) and Raisins. As lunch time drew near however she thought it would be fun to expand her menu.

I let her do a lot of the fixing of lunch and then everybody had to order at the counter and she served up the food. She had a blast. It is so cool to be able to let my child have some simple fun like that!

Jewelry Making from Recycled Plastic (Fun with Shrinking!)

 We have discovered a new fun and free craft at our house: Shrinky Dinks - except using containers that would have otherwise been trashed. I found the idea on Pinterest with a link to Rust & Sun and thought it looked fun and after I discovered that we had a container on hand that would work then Mara and I (with others soon joining in) gave it a try.

This is a very fun and easy way to make very personalized jewelry. We have also made buttons, zipper pulls and beads and are trying to think of other fun ways to use this.

 Here is what you need:

• Plastic containers that are #6 plastic. Where you will often find this is to go containers that you get at a Salad bar, or store bought cookies, etc. Clear plastic works best we have found.
• Permanent markers. Lots of colors is fun.
• Scissors
• Paper Punches are good for making holes.
• An oven (or toaster oven).
• I also read (and plan to try) that sealing with clear fingernail polish or polyurethane is good.
• Cookie sheet with paper on it.

 Cut whatever shapes out of plastic that you like. Then design as you like with markers. If you want to use it for a necklace or something like that then punch a hole in it with a paper punch (the hole shrinks to pretty tiny- which is rather fun!).

 Lay them all out on a cookie sheet and then bake for a minute or so at 350 degrees. They will curl up and shrink and kind of wiggle around and then most of them will lay flat and at that point they are done and ready to come out.

 Some of our first projects where bracelets for two of my sisters for their birthdays. Mara put together the one with a chain and I made one using elastic and beads.

 This one that I made for Anna I had fun making with little squares that I had drawn all the members of her family on and then I put their names on them as well. It was a pretty fun project.

 I thought I would mention a couple of things that we tried that didn't work:

We tried using black #6 plastic and it simply didn't shrink like the clear stuff did. We had thought it would work great to make a lot of buttons but that project went into the trash.

We also tried #5 plastic - It looked a lot like #6 so we thought maybe it would work - it didn't. The clear stuff did turn white and It may have thickened just a tiny bit but not much.

  We also tried using plastic cups that were a translucent white and #6. That had various results. The round flower above was from the bottom of the cup and worked pretty well. Some of the sides of the cup kind of worked too (they didn't shrink in a consistent manor though) and a lot of the ones from the side simply curled up. We think there is potential to use them in other ways.

When you make these they will shrink quite a bit, something like 4 times smaller. So prepare for that when making your projects. You want to make them big enough to be useful but not to big as several of the bigger things we have made have curled up and have never flattened out again.

 For more instructions on doing this you can visit Instructables.

  We very, very rarely buy anything that comes in containers like this but we were happy to find that I had saved a couple in the craft area that had in some way made it to our house. Then one day when Mara was cleaning Ken's office she found that his employees got them and she was able to salvage some and then they offered to save them for her in the future. Yea! We also thought we would keep our eye open for them when we help clean up after potlucks.

 Have you ever made anything like this? What do you think you would do with plastic that shrinks?

I am linking to:

 

Not letting myself be lazy

 Something that I have found very helpful over the last year in my attempt to be more organized and have a more orderly life is to tackle a certain problem area, some that I worked on were - the top of my dresser, the air hockey table in our laundry room that tended to get piled with stuff, my desk and a few others. I did them one at a time and then I just did a little stern talking with myself.

   I told myself it is not okay to just lay things down on those places - it might seem easier at the time but in the long run I end up with a mess that feels overwhelming. I have been working on and praying for self discipline in these areas. Though I don't always keep them perfectly clean it has been much better than ever before. I do "mess up" every now and then but then I work pretty quickly to get back on track.

  When I am tempted to lay something down that really should be put away somewhere else, I scold myself a little and try not to let myself be lazy in that way. Calling it laziness wasn't easy for me as I know I am not a lazy person and I hate that term but the truth is that it is laziness. Since I don't want to be lazy It has caused me to not want to just put things in temporary resting spots (that sometimes can tend to go long term) - I need to make a decision about where it really goes.

 This has been helpful to me - hopefully this idea can help somebody else as well.

 I would love to hear what helps you to keep flat surfaces cleared of in your house!

Give him that look

I am struggling a little to know how to share the thoughts that I have had this week on how to build up marriages but I will give it my best shot. :-)

  Something that I have found to keep the spark alive for us is just simple things like catching his eye across the room, and then sharing a special smile that is just for him. When I write it out it sounds kind of dumb but I have found it something that makes him realize that even if we are with a crowd of people or if we are doing our own thing (working on separate projects) I can still be thinking about him.

  I think eye contact and facial expressions can communicate a lot and I encourage you to make sure you pay attention to your husband, that you give him eye contact so that you can communicate your love and respect to him in that way.

  Now don't start staring at him in someway that he will think you have lost your marbles but rather in a way that makes him realize that you think he is hot or just that you are thinking about him.

 I hope that make sense..... :-)